Bullet.



W. L. CLAY.

BULLET.

APPLICATION FILED umso. 1915.

Patented Oct. 24, 1916.

. @ww/phon Wl?. Zag y Y To all whom t may cof/wem.'

L. CLAY, F THE UNITED STATES ARMY. i

BULLET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 24, 1916.

Application mea December so, 1915. serial No. 69,45'

Be it known thatI, WALLACE L. CLAY, captain, United States Army, and a citizen of the United States, at present residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bullets; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a-full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to bullets especially adapted for use in rearms, and has for its object to improve the armor-piercing qualities of the bullets now in use, as well as to provide other useful features as will presently appear.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists ,in the novel details of construction and combinations of parts `more fully hereinafter disclosed andl particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which like numerals designate like parts in all the views: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of the completed bullet; Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the preferred form of the bullet; Fig. 3 Iis an enlarged sectional view of a somewhat modified form of bullet; and Fig. 4 is a plan view of the form shown in Fig. 3.

1 indicates any suitable outer jacket for the bullet, but preferably made of cupronickel or what is known as gilding metal.

.In the regular service bullet at present employed by the United States Army, the jacket 1 is usually turned in as at 2 leaving the unclosed space 3, and I have adopted this construction in the form shown in Fig. 2. Immediately inside the jacket 1 is an envelop 4 of lead, a lead alloy or other relatively soft metal. The said envelop 4 is preferably thickened as it leaves the cylindrical portion of the jacket and I prefer to so dispose its material as to form the solid nose 5` closely fitting the interior of the sharp nose 6 of the jacket 1. At the rearof the bullet I likewise prefer to thicken the envelop 4 into the solid base portion 7. At the rear of the base portion 7, and between said base portion and the turned in portion 2 of the jacket 1 I prefer to insert a steel disk 8 which is conveniently made of a thickness of say one thirty-second of an inch. j

On the interior of the envelop and between its members 5.and 7, I locate a solid steel slug 10 which may be of any suitable shape and of any suitable kind of steel but I prefer to make it of hardened steel or of a hard steel alloy, and to give it substantially the shape illustrated. I have :found that the best results are produced by rounding its eXtreme point 11 substantially as shown.

The above bullet may bel made of any suitable or desired dimensions, but I 'prefer to adopt the dimensions illustrated which are substantially the vsame as those now employed in connection with the regular army bullet, and which therefore enables me to employ this bullet in the regular `service ries and machine guns. Referring now to the modified form of the mvention shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the construction varies from that above disclosed in that the outer jacket 15 is closed at the base 16, and it terminates at the point 18 which is somewhat short of the eXtreme point 1'( of the bullet. The lead or other soft metal envelop 19 is thickened as at 20 to complete the prole of the sharp nose of the bullet, and it is also thickened as at 21 to t the interior of the base 16 of the jacket 15. Inside the envelopr 19 is placed the steel slug 22 which is, or may be of substantially the same dimensions and material as the slug l0 disclosed in connection with Fig. 2. I also prefer to makethis bullet of substantially the dimensions illustrated in connection with Fig. 3, in order that this form of the invention may be likewise used in connection with the regular service rifles and machine guns.

In the form shown in Fig. 2, I have found that a convenient weight of the slug 10 is say 47 grains when the entire bullet weighs 15() grains, and I have further found in connection with the form ofbullet illustrated in Fig. 3 that the slug 22 may weigh say 48 grains when the entire weight of the bullet is 150 grains.

It will thus be seen that in both forms of .the invention, the eXtreme points 11 of the slugs 10 and 22 will upon impact, be supported by the lead or other relatively soft material surrounding the same, and that the said slugs will thereupon, when penetrating armor, act in a manner somewhat analogous to large projectiles which carry soft steel caps surrounding their hardened armorgiercing points.

As a matter of fact, I recommend that the slugs be given a special heat treatment which will vary according to the kind of steel employed and which will serve to harden the point' 11 to that degree which will be found most effective in practice.

In the form illustrated in Fig. 3, the eX- treme nose or point 11 being blunt, it will readily compress the solid mass 20 upon striking armor, said point will be therefore supported in the manner above'explained and the jacket 15 being carried forward to l the point 18, it will crimp inwardly into the I have found by actual tests that in neither form of bullet do the slugs break up upon impact against hardened steel plates.

In both cases the thickened masses of soft material such .as-.A7 and 21 are suitably supported from the jacket, and the energies pertaining to said masses are utilized in aiding the slugs to penetrate the target. The disposition of the metal is such that the ballistics of the bullet are not impaired even when the service dimensions are employed, and it therefore follows that the length of the bullet is not sufiicient to prohibit it being used in machine guns.

Of course, the bullet can in all cases be made with or without a groove or cannelure into which the cartridge case can be crimped so as to prevent the escape of powder gases when fired. It will further be seen that the cost of manufacture need not be materially larger than the present regulation ammunition.

From actual tests made at varying ranges with this bullet, its accuracv and penetration have proved exceedingly satisfactory, and the steel disk 8 has been found very useful in increasing the penetration through hardened armor plates.

It is an important feature of the invention that in the form' illustrated in Fig. 3, the extreme tapered portion of the bullet is not covered with a hard metal jacket because the above tests have shown that when the standard army jacket strikes at an angle, hardened armor plates, such as are vordinarily used on aeroplanes or as defenses from ria Ere in trenches etc., the metal 'jacket' with which the bullet is covered vention that by so disposing the metal as illustrated, the center of gravity ofthe system is maintained at about the same point as the center of gravity of the standard bullet and therefore all liability `to tumble during flight is avoided. In fact I have found both the accuracy and the penetration of armor plates very satisfactory indeed up to as high as two thousand yards. In no case are my bullets more than say one tenth of an inch longer than the regular service bullets and therefore they are readily adaptable for general use and in fact cartridges containing the same can be fed from the belts of machine guns.

It is, evident that those skilled in the art may vary the details of construction as well as' the arrangement of parts without de-` parting from the spirit of theinvention, and therefore I do not wish to be limited to the above disclosure except as may be required by the claims.

What I claim is Y 1. In a bullet for re arms the combination of a steel slug provided with a rounded penetrating point; a mass of softer metal covering and extending forward of said point; a mass of softer metal located at the rear of said slug; and a metal jacket open at its front end inclosing said slug and masses of metal, substantially as described.

2. In a projectile the combination of a central pointed steel slug; a mass of softer metal located at the rear of said slug; a mass of softer metal located in front of and around the forward end of said slug; and a jacket covering said first named mass and a. portion only of said last` named mass, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aix my signature, in presence of two Witnesses.

WALLACE L. CLAY.

Witnesses T. A. WrrHnRsPooN, A. I. STEWART. 

